Gouyasse Blonde

This is a beer from a town in Belgium called Ath, and it has a legend attached to it involving witches and giants and so on. More on that at the “Brewery of Legends” website.

I like the brewery’s webpage itself, too, which describes the beer-making process with some nice photos, demonstrating this stuff is lovingly made on a fairly small scale. I’d like to get out to Ath someday and have a look. It’s not too far from Brussels either.

But for those who can’t really be athed with all that, on to the tasting...

It’s an interesting mix of sweet and sour -- just when it seems to be going down a candy-floss route, it turns and hits you with a sharp, citrusy acid on the tongue. Thin and not overly demanding, it’s cool and refreshing on a warm evening like this one. 6%, for those who are counting.

Overall, this beer is not exactly a giant, but it seems able to cast a small spell of its own. Just right for watching our fantastic red sunflowers grow...

Watou Tripel

Sitting out on the terrace on what has been the longest day of the year in more ways than one. Pouring rain this morning made us think the cinema was a good idea. But “Night at the Museum 2” did not make grumpy girls any less grumpy. Final rays of the sun across the park now with the girls gone to bed... Some peace and beer, at last.

Watou Tripel comes from the same brewery as the great St Bernardus
http://40beersat40.blogspot.com/2009/03/st-bernardus-abt-12-special-edition.html
beers. An abbey beer, this one is mostly standard as tripels go -- a strong blonde Belgian ale, though it is slightly weaker than many at only 7.5%, which is refreshing. One distinguishing feature is a slight honey taste in the finish, a sweetish floral richness.

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North Korean beer

A colleague sent me this great article on a brewery in Pyongyang: "North Korean beer: great taste, low proliferation risk". Worth a read, if perhaps not a taste...

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Return to Tongerlo Bruin

I’ve had Tongerlo Bruin before, but Bob’s over and wanted to try it -- and it was on special offer at the supermarket -- so, here’s an updated set of tasting notes...

It pours dark and rich, and you expect it to be a bit thicker in the mouth. It turns out it’s a bit metallic, highly carbonated with an aftertaste faintly spicy. “There’s a bite in the back of the throat”, says Bob. Nona says it’s, “warm at the back of the throat”. Bob notes a “hint of chocolate”, which we’d picked up in last year’s tasting.

It’s better than the ultra-thin darks like Grimbergen Dubbel, but still, it doesn’t have any of the depth and richness I expect in a dark beer. Bob summarises it as: “Not a bad beer, but not great. Though, for 1.91 euro for a four-pack (with the coupon), you can’t beat it.”

Strangely, it gets a bit better -- richer, more flavourful with more aromatics -- as it sits for a bit. Wait about tem minutes for a better beer. Actually, I’ve noticed this phenomenon with other beers: they improve with a bit of sitting before drinking. No idea why that is.

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A quick Belgian beer primer for award-winning Indonesian journalists

A few weekends ago, we had some friends over for a Belgian beer tasting. Journalists from Indonesia, they were in town here for a few days to collect an important award for their work. The King Baudouin International Development Prize this year went to their KBR68H radio news agency. I met some of these guys back in Jakarta, and I was immediately impressed with KBR68H. They deserved the recognition.

But now, they were on my turf, and I had a duty to take them through a few Belgian beer basics. Time was short, because they had a very tight schedule, including an audience with the King of Belgium. But we managed to sample three.

First came Hoegaarden, then we had Orval, and finally, we had St Bernardus Prior 8. That’s a pretty short introduction to Belgian beer, I know, but not bad... And it gave them something to talk about with King Albert II a couple days after.

I wonder what his favourite Belgian beers are...

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Cramer Kellerbier

From French beer to German... Cramer Kellerbier is the third beer in the set of three Michael gave me a while back. This one is a “bio” beer, so the eco-friendly buttons are well pushed.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite push any others. It’s an unfiltered, yeasty lager-ish brew. 4.8% and, to me, a bit watery. It’s not bad, mind you, but not nearly as good as the last two in the German collection: Duckstein Original and König Ludwig Dunkel, both just excellent.

Still, it’s a great day out in the evening sun here on the terrace. Last day of holiday before going back to work tomorrow morning. The tulips have been out, adding some welcome colour to the garden after a pretty brutal winter.

Sologne Blonde

We just returned from a week’s holiday in and around the Loire Valley in France, where the evenings were all about wine, not beer. And cheese... I love French wines, as difficult as it is for me to remember all the details and complexities, but French cheese... especially the goaty ones... oh my... I think I should start a new blog on French cheeses.

With cheese and wine, the French have little to learn, but what about beer?

At the château in La Ferté St Aubin -- a grand pile that kids are allowed to rummage through with few restrictions -- we picked up two 75cl bottles of Sologne, one blond and one ambrée, both local brews.

Sologne Blonde is quite thick, slightly syrupy, with strong grain and yeast flavours. It’s a hearty, dried grass taste that predominates. This bière artisanale is unfiltered and bottle fermented, so it would sit well in a Belgian collection. Particularly as the sun has now come out here on a fantastic spring evening in Brussels...

In short, it’s tasty and worth looking for again. It would also go well with a mimolette (AOC).

Duckstein Original

Venturing again into the non-Belgian universe, I now pick up the third German beer given to me by Michael on his visit to Brussels the other day. The first one, König Ludwig Dunkel, set a very high standard so is going to be a hard act to follow, that at least is clear from the start...

I am slightly nervous about the “Rotblondes” tag on the label of Duckstein Original. “Red blonde” is not something that draws me in given all the problems I’ve had with red beers. “Auf Buchenholz gereift” -- matured in beechwood -- is somewhat more comforting.

The pour reveals a clear, dark amber colour, little head, not cloudy -- nothing living in this bottle, obviously. What would the Belgians say?

The taste is immediately smooth with thin mouthfeel. A hint of caramel and powerful and lasting hop finish. There is something of a baked cracker in this, too, like a melba toast. 4.9% alcohol, well balanced with other flavours. If I had to compare it to a Belgian beer, I might say Affligem Dubbel, actually. Yum, in any case.

It seems the Hamburg-based brewery also sponsors a series of music festivals in various northern German cities in summer. Hmmm... more holiday ideas...

Belgoo Magus

Stopped off at the Roxi this afternoon and tried a Belgoo Magus.

On the marketing side, Belgoo is a pretty slick mix of new and old. The logo is modern, but at the same time, they’re really pushing the “all natural” angle of wholesome and traditional brewing.

From Binche in Walonia, Belgoo Magus is a four-grain beer, using barley malt, wheat malt, oats and spelt, as well as Saaz hops. Like many Belgian ales, it’s alive in the bottle, with the yeast working on the product even after it leaves the brewery.

Taste-wise, it seems to me a pretty standard Belgian strong blonde ale. Cloudy and creamy, with powerful hop and yeast flavours, some citrus for sure. 6.6% alcohol by volume. Belgoo Magus is a good representative of the genre but nothing exceptional -- apart from the nifty logo, of course.

St Bernardus Abt 12 Special Edition

François was in from Kenya this week, so we had him and some others over for dinner and a few Belgian beers. Living in Africa, François was after some decent beer and good cheese, and I think we hit the nail on the head: to get started, we sampled Rochefort 8, Rochefot 10 and Chimay Blue, and after the main course, we had a cheese board including Chimay cheese.

But the real star of the evening was a couple bottles of St Bernardus Abt 12 Special Edition. Yes, one of these bottles was my birthday present, and I had intended to age it for a few years. However, the shop around the corner just got another shipment of the same batch, so cellar supplies have already been refreshed.

“Cloudy”, was François’s first comment, followed by “tasty”. I found it much like St Bernardus Abt 12, but with some liquorice notes. Fiona agreed, saying it was, “like the liquorice in a sherbet fountain”. In other words, light rather than strong.

François also found peppermint, as well as plum, cherry and gingerbread. Fiona, “old plums, maybe, peppermint and fruit, dried apricot”. Nico wrote down that it was “softer than Chimay Blue, a bit sweet and creamy”. I was sensing nutmeg.

The regular St Bernardus Abt 12, which is also sold around the corner, has become a fairly regular beer for me. Our original tasting notes had “banana” down as a component, but over the last two or three months of drinking it fairly often, I have to say I haven’t noticed banana at all. It’s time for a new blog entry on that one.

But returning to this St Bernardus Abt 12 Special Edition: this is an excellent beer. Aging is likely to make it legendary. If I can just have enough patience...